North Birmingham meeting to inform community about air quality study affecting schools

Residents will meet with EPA and Jefferson County Health Department officials at Hudson K-8 School in Birmingham on Monday to learn more about an air quality study. (The Birmingham News/Michelle Campbell)

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- A community meeting Monday will provide north Birmingham residents information regarding a study of air quality affecting neighborhood students. It will be held at 2 p.m. Monday at Hudson K-8 School.

Birmingham city school officials, along with representatives of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Jefferson County Department of Health, will meet with community leaders and parents.

Birmingham school Superintendent Craig Witherspoon announced in December that the district was delaying construction of a new school planned for North Birmingham and Lewis Elementary schools pending the results of the air quality tests.

The EPA in August announced it was starting a year-long study of air toxins, chemicals released by a variety of sources including industry and automobiles. They can be harmful to human health if present at elevated levels.

The air pollution study is an extension of a nationwide look at air quality around schools. But it has some North Birmingham residents on edge because of a recent release of a separate study of soil samples in several North Birmingham communities, which found elevated levels of arsenic and benzo(a)pyrene at several sites, including the new Hudson K-8.

Monday's meeting will be held at Hudson K-8 School, 3300 Huntsville Road N, in Birmingham